Darts & Laurels
Dart
for Fifth Amendment journalism, to: The Asian Wall
Street Journal
On November 26, the paper ran a letter from a reader pointing
out that Michael Alan Hamlin's November 22 review of a book
by Ivan P. Hall entitled Bamboozled! How America Loses the Intellectual
Game with Japan and Its Implications for Our Future in Asia, had
misstated the dates of two historic earthquakes in Japan. As originally
submitted, the letter had fairmindedly noted that the inaccuracies
"may be [the reviewer's] or may come from Hall's
work"; but as published in the Journal, the letter contained
no such qualification. It did, however, contain thirteen words
fabricated by the AWSJ and put into the letter-writer's mouth:
"These errors suggest Mr. Hall's facts can be as dubious
as his theories." Distressed by the clear — and demonstrably
false — implication that the wildly off-the-mark errors had
been his, Hall began writing to the Journal's editors, requesting
a correction that never came. Only in a letter from Hall himself,
stating that the errors were the reviewer's, did that fact
finally, on January 17, find its way into the AWSJ. References
in his letter to the paper's gratuitous fabrication, however,
did not.
Dart
to The Mesabi Daily News
On Sunday, November 24, a piece appeared on the front page of
the St. Petersburg Times by reporter Scott Barancik tracing the
sorry history of a deal in which Sykes Enterprises, a customer
service company based in Tampa, opened — in exchange for
millions of dollars in cash, land, and construction incentives
— a 432-seat call center in rural Eveleth, Minnesota, that
it was now, only two years later, about to close. On Sunday, December
1, the Times piece appeared (without permission) on the front
page of Minnesota's Mesabi Daily News, almost — but
not quite — word for 2,500-word. While giving full attribution
to the Times, to Barancik, and even to the Times's researcher,
the purloined version excluded this: "An editorial in the
Mesabi Daily News called the economic incentive package ‘a
wise investment.' "
Dart
to The Omaha World-Herald
On Election Day 2002 and on the following day as well, the paper
carried long, detailed articles, colorfully illustrated with photos
and maps, about the general success of the high-tech voting machines,
made by Election Systems & Software, debuting in state and
local jurisdictions around the country. Both articles took pains
to note that "ES&S is a privately held company owned
by employees and private investors [including] World Investments,
a division of the Omaha World-Herald Co., which publishes the
World-Herald." On Friday, November 8, the paper carried a
brief follow-up: "A computerized counting system," the
report noted vaguely, "failed on Election Night Tuesday,
forcing Adams County officials to call in technicians with Election
Systems & Software, an Omaha company." Period.
Laurel
to The Record for spilling the dirt about New
Jersey's water. Splashed across the front pages of the Bergen
County paper last fall was "The Danger Beneath," an investigative
series by reporters Matthew Brown and Jan Barry that unearthed
case after case in which service stations, factories, dry cleaners,
and heating-oil storage tanks have for years been illegally leaking
carcinogenic chemicals into rivers, streams, and wells while officials
treaded water and pollution spread. Particularly hard to swallow
was the series' revelations concerning one Charles P. Shotmeyer,
who, together with his brother, a former chairman of the county
GOP, owns numerous area gas stations. Apparently the repeated
(and largely ignored) citation of most of those stations by the
Department of Environmental Protection was not perceived as a
problem when Shotmeyer was appointed in 2000 to the North Jersey
District Water Supply Commission, the agency that oversees the
state's largest public water system. But that and other embarrassments
have now been brought to the surface, and the ripple effect has
begun.
Dart
to The Buffalo News for roaming too far from
the journalistic range. In past months, the paper has had plenty
of discouraging words to report about the grim economic realities
of upstate New York — the shut-down businesses, the lost
jobs, the exodus of talent, the disappearing services. So imagine
the surprise when, smack in the middle of the crucial reelection
campaign of Governor George Pataki, a new book, Upstate New York:
Corridor to Progress, showed up around town. Published by Cherbo
and "sponsored by" the powerful Business Council of New York State
Inc., the book — described by the council's president as
a "love letter" to the region's "great quality of life," "dynamic
business community," and "economic vibrancy" — was written,
according to the press release, by Stephen W. Bell, managing editor
of the Buffalo News. As Bruce Jackson summed it up in his online
newsletter Buffalo Report, "When his bosses at the News okayed
this extracurricular employment, did they . . . ask how he could
make nice for the big business lobbying organization and at the
same time objectively oversee reporters who are examining the
region's most recalcitrant economic, political, and ecological
problems?"
Dart
to The Argus-Press for bad casting. The Owosso,
Michigan, paper presented a front-page, above-the-fold, unbylined
article about a prize-winning feature at an international film
festival — the screening, the award, the distribution, the
cast of characters (with their previous television and movie credits),
the production company, the company's other current and future
titles (one "in the vein of A Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe"),
and the names and locations of local video stores where they were,
or were in negotiation to become, available for rental. Mentioned
numerous times in connection with his various contributions to
the film company as writer, producer, director, and actor was
one Anthony Hornus (who also appeared in the four-color photo
on the paper's front page). Not mentioned at all was Hornus's
other starring role: he is the paper's metro editor and the writer
of the piece.
Darts & Laurels is written by Gloria Cooper, CJR's deputy executive editor. Nominations may be addressed to her by mail, phone (212-854-1887), or e-mail (gc15@columbia.edu).
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